Best known for dissolving bodies in bathtubs, sulfuric acid has the potential to be the elixir of life on other worlds.

Aliens have long been a staple of science fiction. Yet the possibility of intelligent life beyond Earth is more than a matter of imagination—it is also a subject of serious scientific inquiry.

Humans have wondered about life beyond our planet since ancient times, and researchers have worked hard for decades to find ...

Astronomers have narrowed down the cosmic search for life, identifying fewer than 50 rocky planets among thousands of known exoplanets that may have the right conditions to support life. Using new ...

A new study from researchers in Japan suggests that a better way to search for alien life might be to look for suspiciously similar planets that are close to each other. The idea is that if life has ...

What would our atmosphere look like if there were no life on Earth?

Two major alien-life announcements in 2025 generated enormous excitement, but most astrobiologists remained unconvinced. Only 6.6% of surveyed experts thought possible biological molecules on K2-18b ...

Everyone has probably looked up at the night sky and wondered, 'Is there someone out there somewhere in this universe?' It's ...

This summer, exoplanet science—the study of planets orbiting stars beyond our sun—took a big step forward. Reports of helium gas escaping from the atmosphere of LHS 1140b propelled this exoplanet from ...

By modeling how a planet without life develops its atmosphere, astronomers hope to be able to better distinguish rocky ...